A 39-year-old woman dies a few weeks after marrying her longtime companion, and just five months after losing her 20-year-old son days after the birth of her daughter.

Any way you look at it, the loss of a mother before she turns 40 is tragic. Add to that the jubilation of giving birth to a daughter, then the agony of having to bury her son, and it's probably not a surprise this life ended way before it should have.

However, if this woman wasn't Anna Nicole Smith - who grew up in a small Texas town, went from working in a chicken restaurant to a gentlemen's club, posed in Playboy and was Playmate of the Year, had her own reality television show and married a billionaire before he died and fought for the inheritance all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court - is this a new story?

Even if it is Anna Nicole Smith - who Associated Press writer Suzette Laboy called in her story, "the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale" - was it really the biggest story that happened Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007?

Looking through The Associated Press wires and stories that we receive every day, we know the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism continued. Members of Congress continued working in Washington, D.C. Boys and girls went to schools, and men and women went to colleges and universities.

Many towns in New York state continued to receive nearly 80 inches of snow, and that amount will pass 100 inches by Monday. Negotiations continued between the United States and North Korea, as well as in the Middle East.

So, how does the sudden death of one woman go from an entertainment tidbit or brief, to the top story recommended to newspapers and TV by AP?

Was it that she was famous because she was famous? Was it Smith's rags-to-riches story that made people tune in to her E! Network reality show from 2002-04? Or, was it people who felt sorry for her or needed to feel better about themselves, so they watched that week's latest Anna Nicole train wreck?

We do know a 5-month-old girl has been left without a brother, and now without her mother. While she won't remember her mother's death, she will no doubt have tons of reminders, in the form of tabloids, books, TV clips, Internet blogs, etc. That is unfortunate.

We also know one person who was probably happy the national news media and millions of others took a lot of interest in Smith's death. That would be Lisa Nowak, the astronaut turned freak who drove from Houston to Orlando and allegedly planned to kill a rival of her alleged boyfriend.

That's not only news because it's so strange, it's downright ridiculous, insane, a waste of time, etc.